Re: Choro Samplers
Hey Lee,
Armandinho is kind of a hot-rod rock-star bad boy of choro, and his playing's not that typical, more flash-and-trash (I'd like to be that flashy-and-trashy myself one day!). The thing he does with a stick at the end is an Armandinho thing, not a choro thing. It was probably inspired by the berimbau, a Brazilian instrument used a lot in capoeira.
There are two top choro composers, Jacob do Bandolim and Pixinguinha, kind of like Mozart and Beethove in classical music. Plenty of others, but these two are head-and-shoulders above the rest. To round things out, there's Ernesto Nazareth, who's never that far from the top of the list.
So do a search for Pixinguinha to get a bunch of links to take you in a bunch of different directions.
For players, if you want the best modern "Jacob do Bandolim" player, look up Danilo Brito. He's a total monster on the bandolim, untouchable chops, perfect timing and unbelievable expression at speed, but exquisite touch and vast delicacy in the slower stuff. Anything Danilo touches is gold, and his playing is what Jacob himself might have aspired to.
Two other great players are Hamilton de Holanda and Dudu Maia, both of whom are killer at choro, but who also branch out into a variety of Brazilian styles.
If you want to try a choro or two for yourself, see if you can find 'Vibracoes' by Jacob or 'Carinhoso' by Pixinguinha. Those are both great slower starter tunes, but they give and give and give, and the better you get, the better these tunes will sound.
The problem you'll have in Antarctica is that all these tunes sound better with accompaniment, and many of them sound incomplete by themselves.
But 'Carinhoso' makes a great chord-melody solo arrangement if you can get it worked out, and a lot of people have their own solo version of it.
'Doce de Coco' (Jacob) is great, because the melody spells out the harmony pretty directly, and it can be pretty satisfying to play even without accompaniment. The tempo is a medium-slow, and so very manageable. 'Naquele Tempo' (Pixinguinha) sort of fits into that category, too. The A section of 'Benzihno' (Jacob) works well this way, too, but the B sort of needs the accompaniment.
For more difficult tunes that stand by themselves as solo pieces because the melody outlines the harmony so well, it would be hard to beat Garoto's 'Desvairada,' a true fingerbuster that will teach you a lot of great mandolin technique. And there's always Jacob's 'O Voo da Mosca,' another great self-propelled tune that provides endless hours of solo ecstasy.
Hope this helps. Enjoy. Watch out, though. As Mike Marshall says, "It's a really deep well, so be careful. If you fall in, it's a really long climb out!"
P.S. edit note: Just looking at the titles, 'Carinhoso,' 'Vibracoes,' 'Doce de Coco,' and 'Benzinho' are all 2-part pieces, and the repeat structure tends to be looser. And 'Desvairada' and 'Voo da Mosca,' while they sport the AABBACCA repeat structure, are waltzes. So it looks like the only tune on the list above that fits the category of 2/4 time signature with AABBACCA structure is 'Naquele Tempo.' So much for categories, eh?
Last edited by Doug Hoople; Jul-07-2009 at 1:22pm.
Doug Hoople
Adult-onset Instrumentalist (or was that addled-onset?)
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